Walter Benjamin: A Life in Texts
Publisher
:
Actes Sud
Parution date
:
EAN
:
9782742782246
Number of pages
:
839
Description
The first half of the twentieth century was a time of intellectual and cultural turmoil and achievement. Here, Bruno Tackels presents a definitive and masterful biography of Walter Benjamin, one of the most enduring and influential European thinkers of the period.
Literary critic, art historian, philosopher, sociologist, essayist, and radio broadcaster . . . Walter Benjamin combines in his work historical materialism, German idealism, and Jewish mysticism. His insatiable curiosity brought him to write about subjects ranging from technology to poetry. In literature, he is best known as a specialist on Charles Baudelaire, as well as for his essays about Goethe and his translations of Kafka. In all his work he used a personal approach that demonstrates an acute understanding of his immediate environment and the broader social context.
If Benjamin’s writings are fascinating, the story of his life is equally so. Benjamin was born to a middle-class family, and although it always informed his work, he broke away from his background at an early age and entered a wider sphere. In Berlin’s intellectual circles, he established his own vision of the world, a vision that contrasted with the collapsing Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. He was a friend of playwright Bertolt Brecht and of Gershom Scholem, the founder of academic study of the Kabbalah and a cousin to historian Hannah Arendt.
Forced to flee from Germany, Benjamin took refuge in Paris, the city he so loved. He wrote several books about Paris, including The Arcades Project. In 1940, he left the increasing dangers of Paris and tried to cross the French–Spanish border. After being turned away by customs officers, and believing that he had run out of options, he committed suicide by taking an overdose of morphine.
Tackels uses his intimate knowledge of texts and personal documents—including many previously unpublished—to draw a parallel between Benjamin’s work and his personal life. He brings to life one of Europe’s greatest and most interesting twentieth-century thinkers.
Author
Bruno Tackels : Bruno Tackels is a philosopher, essayist, and playwright. He has previously written two works on Walter Benjamin.
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